After The Fall
by Mr. Blu- All Will Be Well
Summary: Kazuto sees no reason to fight Kayaba on the 75th floor if Asuna is dead.
1. Nothing But Black

A great shadow has fallen over the world. So large, so dark, you can barely see the wisps of pixelated blood as she disappears forever. It cloaks the spot where she was lying moments before, erasing her memory forever and forcing you to your knees. '_It's over,'_ you think. There isn't any reason to go on if she isn't there. It removes your purpose from you, dragging along with it on fleshy tendrils of pain and despair, your will to live.

But still, you stand up. Why do you stand up again? You don't know. Its not like this damn game was still worth playing. It has taken everything from you. Nothing left to give, and yet this...mind keeps on pressuring and extorting anything it can, until you are left a broken husk. Your blades are useless as the power of Cardinal tears you apart, leaving you a shadow of who you once were two years ago. When you had a life that wasn't about clearing the next floor or getting more XP or whatever else this stagnant program can throw at you.

You strike once, the blow performed like swatting a fly. Without any care or effort, you casually swing towards him. Of course, as with all the other times, he raises that damnable shield of his and blocks it. His block is much like your swing, without care or effort, because Akihiko Kayaba knows that he has already won. He can see in the reflection of your eyes that your spirit is broken, and you squint, as a tear runs down your face. This betrayal sickens you, disgusts you that he can read you so easily, Like he is some sort of God that can see what you're thinking.

'_In here, he is the_ _God_,' you think.

This pathetic little dance you play with him is drawing to a close. You can feel him growing tired of this game. This sport of uncaring, sloppy slashes and parries. It bores the great, the wise, the all-knowing Kayaba. You begin to feel weary of this as well. Must he continue to draw this out so? Every second spent was another chance to have something ripped from you, if there was anything left.

Then, at long last, the stalemate breaks.

The armored Kayaba runs you through with his sword in the blink of an eye, the great blade entering your chest and exiting your back in a spray of pixelated blood and black cloth. And in a blast of glowing, blue glass flying through the air and yellow, molten heat surging in your head...

You, Kazuto Kirigaya, see nothing but black.


	2. Golden Malice

So very quiet. This world of flight and magic bores you. But then again, you only view it from this cage. This golden cage that he put you in. To anyone else, the cage is a luxurious bedroom, occupied by a beautiful maiden. But to you, it is no more than a prison. A cruel, beautiful prison.

You know that he isn't coming for you. It wasn't a long time spent in this prison when you realized that the knight-in-shining-armor-tales are for children. They are for fools, you're smart enough to figure that out. You watched him die. The whole ordeal. First him vanishing into blue glass, and then in that dark, agonized hospital room, his heartbeat slow down. Down, down, down, until it reached that dreadful, clear, hopeless number.

Zero.

Your eyes begin to wet just thinking about it. But you steel yourself, and push that dark thought to the back of your mind. It didn't do you any good to mope around on the death of somebody you never really knew. That thought was darker. To think that your one love in this world doesn't even exist, for all you knew of his real self. Not in the sense that he is dead, but in the sense that he lied to you. He was just a character. Not a person in the real world that could connect to anyone or anything. Just a profile in a corrupt, now nonexistent world.

"Kirito" is not real.

To have wings, but not having flight. _'What a novel concept,'_ you think. Wings, the primary, and profoundly exhilarating appeal of Alfheim Online, were just another anchor attached to your very soul. It makes you sick, the thought of having freedom glowing with an ethereal light on your back, but the cruel rules of this world force you to the ground with an uncaring malice.

Then he comes once again. Nobuyki Sugo, the one who put you here. The one who, with his bitter, sour laughter and hedonic, masochistic treatment of you, has brought you to your knees before him.

He says something, but you're too bored to listen or even care what come from that evil, sadistic mouth of his.

But for some, traitorous reason, you pick out one word. And it fills you with a rage so great, so large and red and hot, that you feel like killing anything that dares to cross your path.

Then you feel his cold hand on your shoulder...

And everything snaps.

You grab his hand and bite into it, the taste of his blood not bothering you in the least. What is left of the mangled limb you latch onto with all your might, and flip the deranged king over, the bones in his hand not already broken breaking as you do. Your own hands curl into fists, and repeatedly flesh pounds flesh as they crash into him again and again. He attempts to draw Excalibur, but you take the sword and break the blade in half over your knee, ignoring the pain as the edge bites into your fingers.

His face is bloody and broken now, teeth smashed, bones shattered. Yet you still attack, pound, rend, kick, do anything to the evil man to inflict pain onto him. All your rage and hatred spills out of you, wrapping around him and squeezing the very life from his body as you assault him. Your fingernails tear into him, pixelated blood staining them and running down his body from where the wounds were made.

And now, the trifecta.

You pick up the shattered blade of Excalibur, your own blood still marring the edge. And now, with fire in your eyes...

You shove the blade through his chest.

And you, Asuna Yuki, break free.

**I would like to thank AntiNalu34575 for being, it appears, the only person who likes this fic, even though I'm not sure what the fuck it is...**

**Anyway, thank you AntiNalu34575!**


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